Kennedy Center president Rick Grenell has announced plans to seek $1 million in damages from jazz musician Chuck Redd following the abrupt cancellation of the institution’s long-running Christmas concert.
Redd, the bandleader behind the Kennedy Center’s annual “Jazz Jams” holiday performance since 2006, pulled out of this year’s show in protest of the venue’s controversial renaming. Donald Trump’s hand-picked board of trustees voted to rename the institution the “Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” change that quickly appeared both on the Kennedy Center’s website and on the building itself. According to Consequence Sound, Redd told The Associated Press, “When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” confirming that the decision was a direct response to the rebranding.
Grenell, who recently became the president of the Kennedy Center, described the move as a costly political protest and said the institution intends to pursue significant damages. Grenell accused Redd of harming a nonprofit arts organization by withdrawing so close to the scheduled performance. “Your decision to withdraw at the last moment — explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure — is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” from Consequence Sound, adding that the center plans to seek $1 million in damages.
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